A suicide truck bombing in the restive Iraqi city of Ramadi has killed at least 30 people, police say. A police commander in Ramadi said a police checkpoint had been targeted. Elsewhere, police said clashes had erupted between US and Iraqi forces and fighters from the Shia Mehdi Army militia in the city of Diwaniya. A ban on vehicles has been imposed on the city following a raid by security forces at about 0500 (0100 GMT), police sources in the southern city said. A number of American vehicles have been destroyed in the fighting, police sources told the BBC. There have been a series of sectarian killings in Diwaniya - which is 180km (110 miles) south of Baghdad - in recent days, a source in the governor's office said. Police and Shia militia sources in Diwaniya said a large American force had launched an offensive in areas in the centre of the city where there is a strong presence of the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to the radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Congressional Democrats say their constituents are clamoring for something even the most liberal lawmakers promise they won't pursue: President Bush's impeachment. "I get one call after another saying, 'Impeach the president,' " said Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat and one of Mr. Bush's most relentless critics on the Iraq war. "It's a simple process but a very divisive thing," Mr. Murtha said. "You've got to measure what it's going to do to the country, and at this point I don't see that happening. Instead we'll fight it out on the issues." Some members speculated that the Democratic takeover of Congress and passage of Iraq withdrawal timetables in both the House and Senate have emboldened liberals across the country who want to see the president embarrassed during his final 21 months in office....http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070406-124129-1462r.htm

Most Americans have little or no confidence in the information they receive from the military or the media about the situation in Iraq, according to a poll released Thursday. The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 52 percent have little or no faith in the military's portrayal of the four-year war, compared with 60 percent who feel the same way about the press reports of the conflict. The figures are a far cry from the overwhelming confidence Americans had in the military and the media at the outset of the war in March 2003. At the time, fully 85 percent said they had at least a fair amount of confidence in military information and 81 percent were confident the press was giving an accurate picture of the war. Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center, said the poll findings mirror the public's perception of how well the war is going overall. "...http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070405/ts_alt_afp/usiraqmilitarymedia

A Greek cruise ship sank off this holiday island Friday, after the vessel struck rocks and nearly 1,600 people on board had to be rescued. The Sea Diamond sank shortly before 7 a.m. local time, 15 hours after the accident occurred and the ship began listing and taking on water. Authorities said two French passengers a 45 year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter had still not been accounted for, and lists of rescued passengers were being rechecked. No one was injured in Thursday's dramatic three-hour rescue effort, which involved Greece's military, commercial ships and the island's local fishermen. Passengers on the cruise were mostly American, and also included groups from Canada and Spain. The 469-foot Sea Diamond was operated by Louis Cruise Lines, part of a Cyprus-based tourism group. "The ship was evacuated quickly and successfully no one had as much as a nose bleed. Thankfully we avoided something much worse at Easter time," Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis said ...http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-04-05-cruise-ship-evacuation_N.htm?csp=34

In the week since the soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Riley, Kan., moved into an abandoned seminary in southern Baghdad's volatile Mekanik neighborhood, they've been peppered with small-arms fire, three mortar attacks and a rocket-propelled grenade. The grenade was launched from 150 yards away and hit the windshield of a parked Humvee, but it didn't detonate. An Army sniper equipped with a .240-caliber machine gun had a clear bead on the attacker but didn't pull the trigger because there was a gaggle of children around. The challenges of neighborhoods like Mekanik are at the heart of the new U.S. military strategy, which aims to insert American troops into the heart of the sectarian violence in Baghdad. As part of the two-month-old security crackdown in the capital, the U.S. military is moving combat troops out of fortress-like forward operating bases where they've lived since the war began and into smaller neighborhood outposts throughout the city....http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17033543.htm

Coming on the heels of a controversial “surge” of 21,000 U.S. troops that has stretched the Army thin, the Defense Department is preparing to send an additional 12,000 National Guard combat forces to Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials told NBC News on Thursday. The troops will come from four Guard combat brigades in different states, the officials told NBC News’ chief Pentagon correspondent, Jim Miklaszewski. They said papers ordering the deployment, which would run for one year beginning in early 2008, were awaiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ signature. The deployment is sure to ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where Democrats in Congress are maneuvering to scale back the U.S. commitment in Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is pushing a proposal to end most spending on the war in 2008, limiting it to targeted operations against al-Qaida, training for Iraqi troops and protection for U.S. forces....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17971410/